Palavas-les-Flots, Carnon & Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone · France · Wreck · Artificial reef
La Citerne
A hollow 12 m cistern alone on the sand at 11 m
Area photo: Julien Renoult · CC BY 4.0
A single metal cistern lying on open sand just off Carnon port, at about 11 m. It was sunk deliberately for spearfishing, measures 12 m by 4 to 5 m and is completely hollow, with the deck and one flank cut open. Alone on a wide sand bottom it works as an artificial reef, and it is where many divers trained at Carnon make their first wreck dive.
Also known as La Barge de Carnon.
Where it is and how deep
43.5248° N, 3.9721° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The cistern sits on a wide sand bottom in front of Carnon port at about 11 m, shallow enough for a Niveau 1 diver to treat it as a first wreck. It is a small object — 12 m long, 4 to 5 m wide — and completely hollowed out, with the deck and one flank cut open when it was put down for spearfishing, so the inside is open to view.
One structure alone on sand acts as a magnet for life, and the dive is a slow circuit of it. Conger eels favour the pipework and dark spaces, and the metal is grown over with trumpet and jewel anemones, sponges, alcyonarians and spirograph worms. Blennies and scorpionfish sit on the plating, and spiny lobster, lobster, octopus and nudibranchs are all logged here.
It is worth leaving the structure to swim the sand around it, where oysters cluster close by. Visibility on this site is often good, which is not a given on this coast, and with 11 m under you there is no reason to hurry: most divers spend the dive circling the cistern, working the outside first and the cut openings last.
The wreck
- Vessel
- La Citerne
- Type
- Metal cistern sunk as an artificial reef
- Length
- 12 m (39 ft)
- Cause
- Deliberately sunk to create a spearfishing site
- Lies
- On sand at about 11 m, hollowed out, cut open on the deck and one flank
Marine life and season
- Macro critters
- Octopus & cuttlefish
- Nudibranchs
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Palavas-les-Flots, Carnon & Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone: Clubs dive year-round, but logged visibility sits near 2 m and the sea at 10-12 °C from January to March; one club runs seven days a week in July and August.
Sources
- Plongée à La Citerne — Plongée Carnon
- La Citerne — Octopus Plongée
- La Barge de Carnon, dive site — Scubago/SSI
More dive sites in Palavas-les-Flots, Carnon & Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone
Reef
A wide scree field at 8-14 m for slow hunting
Reef
Fields of white gorgonians on a bank closed to fishing
Pinnacle
An offshore sec in the current, 25 m up to 19 m
A plateau of faults and posidonia beside a white-sand valley
Caves and faults on a 6-9 m plateau
Reef
A 4-6 m bank 400 m off the beach, used for first dives
Reef
Big overhangs and a dolmen block on an offshore bank
Reef
A 60 m rock at 6-10 m, full of holes
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